The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-01-05
A TALK ON DREAMS.

A prominent Philadelphia physician,
who as specialist in diseases of the
brain has wide reputation, is engaged
in writing little book about dreams
and dreamers. In discursive mood
the doctor talks about the psychology
cal phenomenon commonly spoken OF
as dreams in most entertaining way.
Generally" said he, the other even
ing, "we think of nothing so swift as
the electric current, and yet flash of
lightning is a slow coach compared
with the rapidity with which upon oc-
casion the human brain operates. Moth
ing shows this in so striking manner
as the wonderful performances of the
mind in dreams. The events of years,
to the most minute detail, are recalled
in q second, and purely imaginary
events, covering years and decades,
are pictured so as to be retained per-
manently upon the mind, and are con-
jured up in the hundredth part of a
minute. Some years ago friend OF
mine related to me the particulars of a
striking proof of this fact. He had
been nursing another friend whose i'll
ness was such that he required con-
slant watching. Ny friend had been at
his bedside for nearly ten hours. A
little French clock stood in an adj
joining room which struck the half
hours, and thus gave notice of the time
to administer the patients medicine.
At two o'clock dose of morphia had
to be given the sick man, and the nurse
was waiting for the little clock TO strike
He was very sleepy, and could with
difficulty keep his eyes open. Pres
emily the first tinkling stroke of the
hour sounded. At that moment my
friend fell asleep in his chair. He
dreamed most wonderful dream, the
details of which it would be tedious to
relate just now. The events in the
dream were spread over three years,
during which time he had been to
Paris, to London, to New Orleans, and
made innumerable trips 10y land, lake,
and river His vision began with a
wedding and concluded with an eXecu-
ton, when the dreamer saw his own
wife hanged. The most minute details
of life and travel and adventure were
distinctly portrayed and my friend es-
timated that novel of two big vol
umes could be written in merely out
lining the events of the vision. When
he awoke with st ,rt at the climax of
the execution, he heard the French
clock strike one. Surprising that he
had been asleep several hours, he felt
some alarm. His patient, however,
was sleeping quietly, and when he
went into the other room TO look at the
clock he was astonished and incredu-
lous to find that the stroke of the clock
he had heard upon awaking was but
the second stroke for two o'clock, and
that his wonderful dream had occur
red between the two strokes of the
hour.
But this is not at all an unprecedent-
ed occurrence. 1t is related of an
English clergyman who fell asleep in
his pulpit during the singing that he
dreamed the events of a life before he
awoke, to find that his slumber had
lasted only during the singing of a sin
gle line"
"Can the brain act coherently during
Sleep" asked one of the doctors curl
Gus little audience.
"Oh, yes; that is we'll established,
and has but recently, in striking inci-
dent, been further verified. Canon
Knox Little, of Manchester, dreamed
that he wrote a hymn; remembering it
upon waking, he wrote it down on the
fy-leaf of handy book He then fell
asleep again. When he awoke the
second time he had forgotten the words
of the hymn. and supposed that all of
the incident had been a dream, but
when he looked at the fy-leaf in the
book he found there, sure enough, the
verses he had written down, and which
are now incorporated in several hymn
books in England.
ut is q matter of history, as we all
know, that the poet Coleridge COM
posed his celebrated fragment 'Kubla
Khan while asleep. He fell into a
doze while reading 'Pincha's Pilgrim, ,
and was in slumber for several hours.
When he awakened he remembered an
entire poem which he had composed
during his sleep. He at once seized a
pen and wrote down the part of it that
has been preserved, but was called
away when he was but half through,
and was never able afterward to re-
member the balance, so that the poem
has remained as fragment Tartini,
the musician, composed the Devils
Sonata under the inspiration of a
dream, and mathematicians have solved
problems in their sleep which they
were unable to master while awake.
"But," continued the Doctor, after q
slight pause, Strange as these unac-
countable phenomena may seem there
is yet more curious fact in relation to
dreaming which has never been sufi-
GENTLY noticed. If dream be but a
baseless fabric, to what unsubstantial
and elusive thing shall we compare the
dream of q dream? The thing happens
often, but is so frequently mingled
with the fantastic medley of the dream
itself as to be seldom clearly defined
A very good friend of mind who lives
in West Philadelphia some months
ago related to me the following dream
of this kind which many years ago dis
turbed his slumbers, and which, be-
cause of its strangeness in being a
dream within O dream made great
impression upon him and fixed itself
indelibly upon his memory. Il was
sleeping said he, and fell into a
dream, in which 1 imagined that / was
in a sick-room talking to a visiting ply
stefan about the patients condition. /